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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (1639)	5/10/2000 11:20:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Sudan now self-sufficient in oil, to export petrol KHARTOUM, May 10 (Reuters) - Sudan has stopped importing oil products and will soon begin exporting motor gasoline, or petrol, as a new refinery near Khartoum moves towards full capacity, an Oil Ministry official said on Wednesday. Hassan Ali El-Tom, undersecretary at the ministry, told Reuters in an interview that the complex refinery with a residue fluid catalytic cracker near El-Geili, 70 km (44 miles) north of the capital, was now at 80 to 85 per cent of its 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity. He said the refinery, built by a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Company (CNPC), began operating in February and, along with an older 10,000 bpd refinery at El-Obeid in central Sudan, was now meeting all the needs of the country, which used to import about 1.5 million tonnes a year of products. "This is an economic turning-point when you become self-sufficient in oil products," Tom said. "It will really boost the economy." Imports of oil products costing about US$300 million a year were once a serious drain on Sudan's scarce foreign exchange and shortages of oil products frequently plagued its 30 million people. Pumping of surplus petrol from the refinery began a few days ago through an existing products pipeline that previously brought imported products from Port Sudan on the Red Sea, about 680 km (425 miles) northeast of Khartoum. Tom said it would take several weeks for the petrol to reach Port Sudan and fill storage tanks there, adding that he expected petrol exports to reach about half a million tonnes a year. The pipeline has a capacity of 700,000 tonnes a year. Hopes to boost crude oil output Sudan, now pumping a maximum of 200,000 bpd of crude oil, and more typically 185,000 bpd, through a 1,510-km (944-mile) long pipeline from oil fields in the south to an export terminal at Port Bashair on the Red Sea, hopes to increase this to 230,000 bpd next year. "It all depends on exploration activities. We don't increase production unless we are sure we have increased the reserves and this is still in the air, but it looks promising," Tom said. He put proven reserves at 650 million to 800 million barrels, adding one billion barrels was a reasonable future target. Rebels fighting Sudan's Islamist government have blown up the oil export pipeline three times since exports began last August, but damage has been swiftly repaired. CNPC owns 40 per cent of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), the key developer of Sudan's oil fields. Canada's Talisman Energy Inc has a 25 per cent stake, Malaysia's state oil company Petronas has 30 per cent and Sudan's state oil company five per cent. Exploration is in its early stages in Sudan, with only 15 to 20 per cent of prospective areas covered. Most work has taken place in the GNPOC block, but Tom said the International Petroleum Corporation (Lundin) had drilled one well with good oil shows in a block to the southeast of GNPOC's area. Two more blocks in the southeast, near the border with Ethiopia, had been taken up by a Gulf Arab consortium and a consortium known as Malut, which includes the Canadian company Foster, Tom said. Sudan was open to further exploration, but would negotiate one block at a time in accordance with its own manpower and technical capacities, he added. Tom said Libya had floated the idea of building an oil export pipeline at its own expense from its southern fields across the harsh Sudanese desert to the Red Sea, presumably to serve Far Eastern markets. He said Sudan would charge transit fees if the idea came to fruition, but would have no other direct interest in the pipeline unless oil was found in the so far unexplored northeast of the country. canoe.com